


Echoes

by Lithenai



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 04:53:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10914735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lithenai/pseuds/Lithenai
Summary: Old Yharnam was not always Old and the hunters were not always hunters.





	Echoes

The Ashen Blood. It struck our sleepy little town without warning and seemingly without cure. Treatment consisted of little white pellets that seemed to curb the symptoms, to a degree. People still died no matter how much of this medication they consumed, wracked with pain until the moment they collapsed dead in their homes or simply succumbed in their infirmary beds. It seemed like nothing would help. Then the Healing Church came.

They brought with them blood ministration, the process of infusing blood into an individual to cure all manner of ailments. It seemed like it worked, less people died, my own mother cured by this strange procedure and closely guarded secret. Then the beasts came, or maybe they happened.

While my family gathered with others in the town square to hear another announcement from the Healing Church’s most prominent members a scream echoed through the village center and struck the crowd silent. I turned to get a better look, stricken with both fear and curiosity, but all I saw was blood and flashes of black. Mother scooped me up and barricaded us within our home leaving my father with the other people of the village to protect us. Father didn’t return.

After that we rarely left our home, mother telling me to stay put even as the norm became after the Ashen Blood first came around. She left every so often for food, for water, but always returned with fear in her eyes. The beasts had become a greater threat and the townsfolk could only fight against them for so long. Their torches and tools could only do so much against such terrifying creatures. Somewhat luckily for us the Healing Church seemed to have a solution to everything, beasts included.

I saw my first hunter nearly four months after my first beast. He was clad head to toe in thick black robes ringed with the white of the Church. I barely caught sight of his weapon before mother stepped in front of me and ushered me back inside the house but I remember it as clearly as if I held it in my own hands. It was thick and edged with the most jagged blade I’d ever seen, more brutal looking than any hand axe or scythe the townsfolk would have found to wield.

It didn’t work. With every beast felled more rose to take its place. The streets filled with blood, both given to the men and women ailing as the Ashen Blood ran rampant through the streets and those of innocents spilled and draining like rainwater down the gutters. I don’t remember when mother started lightning incense to ward off the beasts. To mask our scent in the nights while the Hunt for the terrible creatures raged.

That didn’t work either.

~

“What are you thinkin’ ‘bout?’ The coarse voice snapped me out of my memories. “Emmeline?”

“Nothing.” I reached up and gave a short tug to my hat, pulling the front edge down to hide my face to my comrade in arms.

“Shouldn’t be thinkin’ of nothin’, it’ll get you killed.” He pushed himself up from his seat and sidled over to the large wooden doors of the church. “A hunter should be thinkin’ of the beasts.” As he spoke he lifted his cap from the top of his spear, a tattered old thing I was certain couldn’t have originally been his with a torn feather tucked into the brim. “Be seein’ you on the streets tonight.” With that he lifted the pushed open the huge doors, lifting his spear into hand with a click of its overly complicated mechanisms and left.

Tonight, I didn’t plan on going out to hunt, the last time leaving me with now wrapped lacerations on my left arm. The only solace I had in that was that I could still use my blade in my right hand if the worst should happen, I hoped the worst didn’t happen. Instead, with a small tap to the brim of my hat, I got up from my own spot settled against the far wall of the church’s unnecessarily complex entrance and wandered over to the small burning near the front door. The incense needed to be refilled lest this place of rest come under siege on my watch.

We’d never had an issue with the beasts invading the inner sanctum of the church, but at the same time we’d never run out of the incense that hid our scents from the beasts. There were stories, from before I ran here in the wake of the burning of Yharnam… Old Yharnam, about before incense was used. About the men and women both townsfolk and hunter alike that died at the gates to salvation. So many died, yet so many more were turning into those hideous creatures.

I sighed as my hand dug into a small copper pot, pulling out a few roughly molded cylinders to toss into the burner’s metal bowl. Maybe just a patrol around the church to make sure no afflicted were wandering too near to our haven. What harm could it do to make sure everyone was safe?

Unlike some of my compatriots I kept my weapon on me at all times. I remember the first time I’d laid eyes upon it from the workshop. The blade reminded me so of the first hunter I’d seen out on the streets. The metal was thick and heavy, jagged teeth like that of a saw for dismembering the men turned beast on cleaving blow at a time. I’d taken to it perhaps more naturally than I should have, wanting nothing but to destroy the source of the scourge that took my family from me. Now it was tied off to my side, always within reach, always ready to slake my need for revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> ~I just had some inspiration to start this fic because I've been replaying bloodborne and souls games. I'm sorry if the lore isn't absolutely perfect but I might be bending some rules exploring areas that weren't completely described and not really when we're playing as the hunter. We'll just see where it goes, and I may take some liberties. Also I apologize for the shortness of the first chapter, but I wanted to see if anyone likes the idea or wishes me to continue before completely committing my somewhat limited student life time to it.~


End file.
